Fixing EU's flaw is better than aiding sinister Putin

THE rise of extremist right-wing groups across Europe should be a concern to every right-minded person in this community of 500 million people.

PUBLISHED: 00:01, Sun, Jun 1, 2014

Removal of the EU would put Vladimir Putin in control[Getty]

For all its many faults, the EU contains an idea at its core that was born out of bitter warfare and division.

Winston Churchill knew this when, in 1946, he delivered his famous speech to the academic youth in Zurich calling for a united Europe "to provide a structure under which it can dwell in peace, in safety and in freedom".

Fascism is no more than the creation of a poisonous, ugly unity based on a common hatred of others. Often, that unity is as flimsy as a bad conjuring act. The difference, however, is that the guillotine is real.

It is no coincidence that the drumbeat of prejudice and intolerance is once again being heard across Europe.

In Ukraine, Hungary, Bulgaria, Greece and France homophobia and anti-Semitism are the working currency of fascist groups which have been celebrating since the EU elections.

Fascism is no more than the creation of a poisonous, ugly unity based on a common hatred of others.

More troubling still, many pay homage to Vladimir Putin, the "nationalist's nationalist" whose only concern is strengthening Russia's global power in Europe while using prejudice and dangerous expansionist policies to secure his own position.

Of course much must be done to fix the EU. Proud nations such as ours must be allowed to retain control of our borders and laws, and cut away the fat of a bloated Eurocracy, and David Cameron is the only one willing to take a shot.

Yet there is a big difference between mending a leaking boat and scuppering it in the hope that the sharks are friendly.

The real danger of dismantling the EU is that this may make it easier for Putin to replace it with a union of his own making. One that puts Russia at its centre.

HOW UTTERLY disheartening to learn that the treatment of those who suffer with schizophrenia in Britain, the nation that proudly pioneered free healthcare for all, has not improved in 25 years.

The report by mental health charity Sane makes sombre reading. The Sunday Express has long called for a fresh approach in the treatment of mental health sufferers, with the creation of more and smaller specialist units that can give patients solid continuity of care.

To his credit, Labour's Ed Miliband has vowed to put mental health on the same footing as physical health if he wins the next election and we applaud this idea.

It is not just a moral argument. Short-term costcutting is shown to be a false economy when you learn that schizophrenia alone costs the nation £11.8billion a year in care costs and lost production.

While schizophrenia cannot always be prevented, early intervention is proven to be effective, while misdiagnosis leads to the wrong treatment that can make the condition worse. It is time we, as a nation, forced the number-crunchers to heed the experts.

We owe it to the sufferers and we owe it to ourselves if we want to continue considering Britain a caring and civilised society.

ONE CAN only look with awe at the lengths to which Blue Peter editor Biddy Baxter ensured that none of the 7,000 children who wrote to the show every week received the same reply if they wrote a second time.

Her zeal, she tells Desert Island Discs, came from receiving a duplicate reply from her heroine, children's author Enid Blyton, at the tender age of six.

There can be nothing in the world of a five-year-old quite so catastrophic as the realisation that a hero or heroine is flawed and that the precious trust placed by that young mind was misplaced.